On Thursday I was coaching swim practice and a mom of one of my swimmers who also happens to read the blog came up to me.

And she said, “I just want to thank you. Your blog helps so many of us who are struggling.”

She gave me a hug. A big, warm, strong hug where you can literally feel the support and the compassion and the kindness flow from the other person’s body and into yours.

I cried like a baby.

Right there on the pool deck.

The kids and parents who were there must have wondered what the hell was wrong with me.

But I didn’t care.

Yesterday I pulled up to the high school to drop Number 4 off for a basketball game, and as she got out of the car,  a mom who was walking past my car stopped and said,

“You have no idea who I am, but I just wanted to tell you that I love everything you write.  Thank you.”

Whoa.

About 45 minutes later, I was sitting in the gym watching Number 4’s basketball game and another mom I was sitting with said,

“I just want to tell you that you bring so much joy to so many people with your blog. You help a lot of people.”

Holy Cow.

This morning at a swim meet, a friend came up to me and said,

“I want to give you a hug. I know you need one.”

I held my shit together, but it was tough. Tough in a good way. But tough.

I share all this because it’s a testament to what happens when you allow yourself to be vulnerable.

I know my platform is bigger than most people’s. But when you share your struggles, there are people who can relate to you. Lots of them. And someone will let you know they are there for you. They will let you know why you matter to them.

They will let you know you are not alone.

Shortly after I was given a hug at the meet today, another mom (who I don’t think knows about the blog) jokingly said to me “Susie. I just need to know that everything is going to be okay. Just tell me it’s all okay.”

This is a mom who is really pretty and in shape and appears to have all her shit together.

But I know for a fact she struggles with feeling overwhelmed by motherhood and like she’s dropping the ball and failing.

I looked at her and I said, “It’s going to be okay. And every single other parent on this deck is struggling, is messed up in at least one way, and has wanted someone to tell them that everything is going to be okay at some point recently.

Yesterday at Number 4’s basketball game, Number 7 came sprinting across the basketball court, and she tripped and came literally millimeters from slamming her face and all of her teeth on the bottom step of the bleachers.

The friend I was sitting with gasped and her eyes got real wide and she looked at me like ” HOLY SHIT THAT WAS CLOSE!”

And I looked at her and said, “That’s basically what parenting is. Surviving a series of near misses. Indefinitely.”

We are all there. Struggling in some way. Trying to avoid disaster. Surviving the near misses. Finding a way to make it through the disasters when we can’t manage to avoid them.

And feeling like it’s just us.

It’s not.

We’re all navigating our own shit shows.

And I just want to thank you all again for helping me to navigate mine.